April 2, 2009

Chip Towers of the AJC was the first to report that Mark Fox of Nevada will be named head basketball coach of the Georgia Bulldogs tomorrow at an 11:00 am press conference in Athens. Given what was available and willing to assume our challenge, this is a very strong hire.

His resume as a head coach beats the hell out of the one owned by Anthony Grant, Frank Haith, Brad Stevens (Butler) or Brian Gregory (Dayton).

Specifically, he has more conference titles, more NCAA Tourney wins, more weeks ranked in the Top 25, and more wins against teams you've ever heard of than Anthony Grant by a long shot.

Highlights of Fox's Career:

Career Record - 123-43 overall and 66-16 in the WAC. Never won fewer than 21 games in a season in five seasons.

Championships - Won the WAC regular season title four times in five years, and he won the conference tourney once.

NCAA Appearances - 3 NCAA Tourney appearances. He advanced to the second round twice including a huge win over Texas, and he beat Creighton in the tourney when they had a Top 25 team. His tourney losses were to Memphis, Illinois (when they were #1) and an upset loss to Montana. Also made the CBI twice (the other NIT).

Mentor of Note - Coached under Trent Johnson of LSU at Nevada for several years. When Johnson went to Stanford, Fox took over as head coach. Johnson's system and style of play was very effective in the SEC last year.

Fox is a guy that believes in scheduling relatively tough for the mid-major circuit. He typically scheduled about six quality non-conference games a year against high-majors (UNC, Kansas, UCLA, Cal, etc) or well known mid-majors like Gonzaga, UNLV, Santa Clara, etc.

Winner on the Road:As a head coach he has won road games versus Kansas, Cal, Gonzaga, UNLV and Georgia. Given our program's problems winning road games the past few years, that's a quality list of wins for a mid-major program. He's also won home games against UNLV, Anthony Grant's VCU team (2009), Oregon State and UGA.

UPDATE Recruiting:He put 4 players into the NBA in five years. For a mid-major, that's very strong. I would be embarrassed to tell you how far back you have to go to find four UGA players in the NBA.

He has a four star shooting guard committed for this season, but not signed yet (please oh please let him come here). He signed two four star kids last year, and he is credited with signing All-American Nick Fazekas at Nevada when he was an assistant coach.

“The whole secret to our success has been finding kids that get better and kids that buy into how we operate here,” said Mark Fox, who is in his third season as Nevada’s coach. “They’ve all been really good kids that have allowed themselves to be coached and work hard.”

The Nevada News recently talked with Mark and Cindy Fox about a class they taught on campus. In the interview, Mark talks about his first paycheck where he realized his check was only $6 more than his rent.

Interestingly, his wife Cindy is the #2 athletic director at Nevada. Her title is Executive Associate Athletic Director, Sports Support. She's like the Arthur Johnson of Nevada.

Overall:Before you say....WTF? Or "Who?" Consider this....if you had never heard that unrealistic, dumbass idea that Jeff Capel was obtainable, and you actually read the guy's qualifications....would you be interested? Wait til you see who he has actually beaten. It's no joke.

Give me a break. They haven't even gone to the NIT the last two years. He racked up huge win numbers with guys that Trent Johnson recruited. See yall in 5 years when we are searching to replace this guy. Way to blow it Damon.

Well the NIT is under different selection process now than it used to be....plus alot of teams and coaches dont even want to be int he NIT because it is run by the NCAA. He is also in a 1-bid league almost every year so you have to take that into account. People are already dogging this guy and he hasnt even got on campus yet, at least give him a chance to succeed. Most people that are against him have never seen him coach

What a total joke! I just hope they are not paying him that much to coach. The CBI? What the hell is that? The fact that he couldn't get out of the 1st round of it the past 2 years isn't very promising.

The line of he did it with someone else's players is a joke. You still have to be able to coach them up and it might be more impressive when they are not your guys. You have to get them to buy into what you are trying to do. He has also beat Kansas on the road and he beat wonder boy Grant and VCU this year.

So the head coach doesn't recruit players? Wasn't that one of your reasons for knocking Grant because he didn't recruit Eric Maynor? This is a terrible hire. Should have just kept Felton because this is not a step up from him.

This is not the great hire you guys are spinning. If he was that great of coach then some of those West Coast colleges with vacancies would have been after him. This is a horrible hire but what did one really expect.

Admittedly, I am not all that familiar with him. However, the resume of accomplishments amassed at a school located in Reno, NV has me more hopeful than the list of cadavers that were being talked about in the last 48 hours. If you have never been to Reno before, you can trust me it -- is not exactly a BB recruiting hotbed.

Very pleased with this hire. I had a feeling we were going to get a surprise, and Mark Fox was truly on NOBODY's radar. Nonetheless, he has an impressive resume, and like PWD said, much more impressive than Anthony Grant's. Kudos to Damon Evans and Parker search firm for finding this guy. GO DAWGS! Can't wait to see what Fox does.

Excellent hire, Dawgs. Part of Fox's problem the last couple of years is that the players he's recruited have been too good--guys like Ramon Sessions and Javale McGee have been leaving early for (and succeeding in) the NBA. Easy to brush off at a larger program, tougher at Nevada. Anyone who's griping about Nevada's performance this year doesn't know what they're talking about--their top three scorers are all freshmen or sophomores and they didn't have a senior in the rotation. Frosh forward Luke Babbitt was their leading scorer, yet another legit NBA prospect Fox recruited at a mid-major program.

In short: this is every bit as good a hire as Grant, if not a little safer given Fox's longer resume, IMHO.

LOL, seriously, I am a fan of diversity. No, I am not politically correct.

Read up on him, he spent his free time while getting his masters at Kansas absorbing all he could from Roy Williams.

He would go over far better if the expectations hasn't been set so high publicly.

Everything I have read says he is a student of the game. Recruiting may not be is strong suit, I don;t know, but he is credited for doing more with less talent within his conference, not sure about the reference to winning with Trent Johnson's players. Johnson tried hard to get him to baton rough.

Thanx PWD. I like this. We swung for the fences (little league they might be) w/ Anderson and got rejected. Now we move to a safe pick and it's done. The search firm likely prevented more public smackdowns. To quote Parcells, "you are what you are". We are a sad bball program in a football conference. I'm not hoping for the moon, just a little excitement and a HC that wants to be part of it.

The "winning with someone else's players" argument only works if the coach WASN'T the head assistant at the school before he took the big chair.

Since everyone who comments here knows more about running a program and coaching basketball than Damon, Fox, or Phog Allen, I'm sure you will all hate this hiring and crush the Athletic Department and continue to not attend the non-Kentucky games and say how you really wish UGA Basketball was worth a damn.

I'm going to thank the Heavens we didn't get some NBA retread, or an aging ACC coach (Haith would have been okay with me), or Bob Knight.

You hit the nail on the head. It's no coincidence that as soon as UGA starts looking for a coach, all the posters come out of the woodwork to offer their uninformed opinions. It's usually easy to spot them, because right now they're complaining that we didn't hire Bob Knight.

Thanks to Paul and Jerry for the detailed analysis.I am happy that DE ignored talk radio and the haters and did his homework. Like a previous poster said, we didn't get the 3 run homer (which was a stretch by any means) and went with the double w/ no outs.

Dont know anything about this guy could take us to the promise land or end up being a bust. His winning record speaks for itself, but as i recall felton had a pretty good record at wku. Does anyone know if this guy can recruit?

Great post Paul. I obviuously have no idea what the future holds. It looks to me like getting a guy like Mike Anderson was too much of a stretch (maybe not, but it looked like it to me). That means we had to look deeper. That doesn't mean we abandoned smarts, and contrary to the belief of a number of unhappy dawg netizens, I tend to think of Evans as a sharp guy.

Color me not optimistic, but intrigued, and happy that we can move forward. Here's to next year.

I am actually a big basketball fan and I really really want us to have a good program. I still remember being at a Hawks game when they announced that UGA had beaten UNC to go to the Final Four. I honestly know nothing about this guy as a coach nor am I familiar with the type of offense he runs. What I am sure of is that anyone is an upgrade over Felton who couldn't seem to recruit players he could keep on the team due to either Academics or Disciplinary reasons. Atlanta is a FERTILE recruiting ground. There are enough Div I prospects just in Metro Atlanta to stock 2 or 3 programs if you get the right guy in there. Let's give Coach Fox a chance and see what he can do.

Just as a post script...we seriously need to upgrade the Stegosauraus....it isn't bad on the inside, but it does look old and tired on the outside and often that is a recruits first impression.

PS - Kudos to PWD for his coverage all week. You were the only media outlet that kept a fans perspective wedded to an iota of bball insights.I would've lost it if I had to rely on the usual ATL media hacks.

First off...and I know it doesn't directly relate to Fox...but I've always been mystified at the love affair with Billy Donovan. Yes...I know the dude won the two national title and I'm not trying to trivialize that at all...but I just don't think of Billy D as a great coach. He hasn't made the tourney in two years in a horrible SEC. The five years prior to the national titles he never got past the second round of the tourney. I think he's a slightly better than average coach who struck it rich with one recruiting class and that's about it. On to Fox...

I'm not thrilled with the hire, but I can't say it's because I've watched a lot of Nevada basketball of the last 5 years. I think part of the problem is that Damon, by his own doing, set expectations very high. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but even if you like the hire I think we can all admit it's a bit underwhelming. My biggest concern is recruiting. Recruiting ATL is the only reason UGA is a decent job and it's the only way we'll ever be good. Hiring a unknown coach who hasn't been east of Reno isn't exactly a recipe for taking over ATL.

And the fact that he beat Grant this year head to head is completely irrelevant. He might be better than Grant but it's not because of that. Gimme a break. One game head to head isn't a good barometer in football, much less basketball. Let's try and refrain from using that to make ourselves feel better...it looks pathetic.

We'll see. The only thing wrong with the search was, as Paul says, completely losing control of the expectation game. That may have been a result of the long time after the firing. If you fantasize about Jeff Caple long enough, it starts to seem like he really is your coach, and then it sucks when you wake up and realize that he isn't.

Ok, here's how I see this: We won't really be able to assess whether this was a good hire until 1-2 years from now. Fox could be Felton 2.0 or he could be just what we were looking for. It's entirely too soon to be making definitive pronouncements. So, I suggest we give Damon Evans the benefit of the doubt and soundly support our new coach. If hindsight proves this to be a bad hire, then is the time for criticizing and complaining. For now, we should all become Coach Fox's biggest fans. We owe this guy a clean slate and the benefit of the doubt as his tenure begins in Athens.

I'd also like to thank PWD for the updates, you've been the best source on the web to keep up to date on this. Far better than those pricks over at the AJC (who by the way, you should see the crap they are already saying about Fox). Thanks again for keeping us informed.

I am sure Hale doesn't need, nor probably wants, me to defend him, but he is a reporter, and spring practive is news. There really hasn't been any news, just conjecture on the BB front until Anderson turned us down. His statement of being tired was probably related to chasing down false rumors.

With that being said, I am very grateful for the basketball,a dn all Dawg sports, outlet georgiasports and PWD provide.

My big concern is that he is coming from a little-dog school and we need a guy to revolutionize our gameday atmosphere and marketing schemes. I am not sure if he has the background to do that.

I will give him the benefit-of-the-doubt, but this is doomed from the get-go.

This is why Damon needs to STFU if he has another hire. Do not go out and promise the fans that you are going to shoot for the stars and not deliver. You only create a worse situation for the guy who actually gets the job.

Chris, My apologies for missing that your question was rhetorical. But, it was obvious that many posters did not know what the tournament was. You think this is a pop fly, and it may turn out to be. But it is every bit as good a hire as Grant and a lot better than those ACC also rans that everyone had us going after. BTW, the Dawgs didn't choke in the World Series, they got beat. I was there, and Fresno State was on fire, seemingly a team of destiny, and with more fans than we had on hand. Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield. The second half of that series, we were the bug.

KC, I too was there, thanks to Sprint being a great customer. We looked like the "windshield" until we started believing as much. I would never call it a choke, as FS played theiur asses off, but we did let it slip away. Yes, they much greater support, but I think many of them were just fans of other teams rooting against us.

Anon 11:29. I know what you mean, as Fresno State was not that good last year either... I believe the lowest seed to ever win the tourney. That said, those statistical anomalies can occur, especially over a short season, and even moreso in one or two games. I coach a 6th grade competitive basketball team and one of the teams my team beat earlier in the year went 9 of 17 from three point land against us in our last game. 9 of 17 for 12 year old boys is crazy, but it can happen for one game, but certainly not for a season.

I'm nervous that he taught a class with his wife at Nevada. Have we seen copies of the final exam for that class? We don't need to go down that road again! I also agree with the ideas of anon 11:29. It would not suprise me at all if Detweiler and his BROKEN THUMB were on something.

Re: My deleted comment about Hale's blog--I love his blog and read it every day. Nonetheless, I was extremely disappointed with his comment about basketball in the midst of an important hiring process compared to the competing attention of...spring football.

I don't get why anybody cares about spring football. But I guess that's the SEC for you, and I guess that's why we have the rep we've earned.

The fact of the matter is that no coach outside of huge names, tier 1 names, would be able to land great players out of Atlanta from the outset. We're going to need to piece together a couple quality seasons with above average guys -- guys that Fox can recruit -- to become relevant again. Once relevant, I have no doubt that Fox will have a much easier time landing big names. You only need one or two high quality players surrounded by good team-oriented guys to get into the tournament. I think this is good higher.

B) Grant won just as many Conference titles in less time (3 reg. season, 2 tournament) than Fox (4 reg., 1 Tournament). He has a National Title ring, name recognition, and knows the south. Oh, and has a great reputation amongst coaches in the south as well

Bad joo-joo was the reason we lost the CWS, conjured up by some disgruntled cajun hoodoo when the Bayou Bengals fell out of the tournament. Pray they don't bring their swamp devilry to Athens this weekend.

The fact that the WAC is a fairly mediocre hoops conference concerns me a little, but otherwise it seems like a solid hire and I'm willing to be optimistic. What people need to remember is that merely making Georgia competitive -- which Fox seems plenty capable of doing -- would be a huge step up from where we are now. If you're expecting us to immediately get launched into the Final Four, you're going to be disappointed, but Anderson and Capel would've disappointed you too. If you're expecting to beat Tech on the regular and have a realistic shot to make the Tournament, though, it seems like we're laying a good foundation for that.

Looking at it from today, I think Grant would have been a better hire. Georgia basketball needs a some "juice" from the media to at least get the in-state kids interested. Grant at least has a little juice-a little media interest associated with his name. Fox does not.

Initially (and remember, a new coach is only going to get three years to get things going) Grant would have been able to better compete for in state talent. As for Fox's coaching ability being better than Grant's, a Nevada poster (who is a Fox fan) said on the UGASPORTS board that Fox runs a low post offense and has questionable substitution patterns. Didn't I just watch that movie?

Love the hire. He fits everything we needed. He just isn't loved by T. Moore and D. Bradley at the AJC. Even Better! All you complainers need to decide if you are going to be a Dawg fan or a football fan. Stop bitching. I will be expanding my season tix to 4 next year and again rooting for these kids every game that wear the RED AND BLACK! And if anyone mentions Bobby Knight again, they should be banned from all UGA blogs for being an idiot.

I agree with the poster that said this hire was a double. It won't excite the fanbase, but quite frankly, I don't think we were going to get anyone that would excite the fanbase. This was the sort of hire we were capable of, and had Damon and Adams managed expectations a little better, folks would probably be a lot more positive about the hire.

I'd equate this with a solid Big Ten hire. Most coaches in the Big Ten aren't the flashiest guys or uber-recruiters, but they are, for the most part, excellent with the Xs and Os. And given the poor level of Xs and Os in this league (I generally think Donovan, Pearl, Stansbury, Kennedy, Lebo and possibly Grant are average or worse in that regard), hiring a coach like Fox gives us at least some advantage over our rivals. If (and it's a big if, admittedly) he can recruit Atlanta decently, he can elevate us to the top third of the league pretty quickly. I didn't realize that he coached under Roy Williams until this morning, so between him and Johnson, he's had pretty good mentors on the Xs and Os.

A couple of other things I learned during this coaching search: money doesn't matter near as much as I thought it did. That we couldn't get some guys to look at us was pretty shocking. Second, that PWD was more plugged into this search than the beat writers who cover UGA for a living. Great job, Paul.

What's the love with Grant? Are we so certain that Bama wouldn't have ended up with him anyway? Regardless, Grant and Anderson were off the table. Given what was left (not what people think we should have done in the past), who is a CLEARLY better hire? Remember that we are UGA and not Kentucky. We can't just hire anyone. Everyone has issues. Plus, it's not like Anderson would have definitely brought UGA to the promise land.

I am assuming that fans are like this everywhere (I hope so), but the negativity is terrible. I recall post after post about how Ringer was going to run all over UGA in the bowl game. Yep. Those must be the same people panning this hire. Support your team and be optimistic. At least be open-minded.

Go Dawgs!

Jman

P.S. How many CBI tourneys has UGA been to? NITs? Even Nevada has been to more NCAA tourneys than Felton's UGA.

While I like the hire, I think expectations got out of hand. Everyone expected us to land some huge name, and we were quickly slapped in the face when Anderson turned us down, for substantially less money. At that point we needed to hire someone quickly, or we'd be facing rejection after rejection. Lets face it, a ton of schools are upgrading their facilities, and our stadium is nothing to look at, so thats a split at best.

Our draw was the SEC and money, and I was surprised that didn't land a big name coach. I am all for Fox, and he could be a diamond in the rough, but I'd hate to miss again. It was a tough year to go looking for coaches.

After reading some of the Nevada fans comments they had both positive and negative things to say about the coach.

Positive - He is an amazing recruiter, and his kids WILL play hard for him for the whole 40 minutes. His teams play tough defense. His rants/tantrums were the best in the WAC, and if he throws one, it is worthy of the admission price and the technical foul that will be received.

Negative - He cannot make quick changes in game. His offense go for long stretches without scoring.

Overall it's an upgrade, but I will be very disappointed if DE is paying him anything close to 2 mill.

It might be the lunatic fringe that left all the comments, but it seems like most of the Nevada fans were happy to see him go.

A few things... #1 CBI tournament is a pay tournament. A school has to pay in order to play in the tournament.

#2 His recruiting isn't so hot until recently, if you look at Scout and Rivals rankings. Give him credit for his class last year and Babbitt, but he's from Reno. His other star recruit was a JUCO. Will he be able to recruit at UGA? Who can know?

#3 He's never had to build a program like it he'll have to do at UGA. He took over a successful program.

#4 How do you think he compares to the other coaches in the SEC East: Calipari, Donovan, Pearl, Stallings, Horn?

The answer to both seems to be a resounding yes. But when you look beyond the wins and losses and championship trophies, when you look at all the variables that come into play -- the high-profile players who all but landed in his lap, the couple of embarrassing off-the-court incidents and what can only be described as a perceived level of friction between Fox and some of his players -- it's difficult to blindly share that optimism.

Truth be told, in a few years we might come to learn the biggest winner today is the Wolf Pack and its fans."

Paul- I agree totally that this is a strong hire. You would think based on most of the feedback on the AJC and such that we just hired a Division III coach with a winning % under .500 or something. I am excited to see what he can do. The only thing I'm a little concerned about is his temper.

You Dawgs stole one from us... Fox was our hidden secret that a small school like Nevada wasn't going to be able to keep for long. He can coach any level of talent and make the student-athlete better, he can recruit the hidden gems that make a program prosper and he will make your community excited about the next (winter, i.e. after football) season. I selfishly want Georgia to go even further in the basketball tank, but in a couple of years you'll be very good. The only reason our Wolf Pack teams weren't better was because our pro-players left early... hard for a mid-major to absorb. Good luck and enjoy the ride / rise to the top.

You east of the Rockies types crack me up! Fox brought teams into YOUR house and knocked you off 2-0. If the mighty SEC UGA can't beat itty-bitty wittil NV, you have nothing to gripe about regarding this hire.

You have NO idea what a nugget you blundered onto in Fox. He'll energize your tired old conference and make your team winners...you folks are still losers, however.